Spectral
by Allyarra
Summary: Harry Potter isn't famous, no one knows where he is, and only Ginny Weasley really cares and she only cares because he disappeared the day she was born. Then he shows up in the dorms one night without a corporeal body and secrets are revealed. AU HG RH
1. Chapter 1

Ginny Weasley did not particularly like leaving the Burrow. She didn't like the way her brothers would always keep an eye on her and her parents' faces would have more lines. Not many people were ever out anyway, although sometimes her parents would tell tales of Diagon Alley bursting at the seams with people. But people are cautious now, they don't want to be caught out in the open.

Nobody wanted to be in the open if the worst should come to pass. Ginny didn't remember what it was like when Lord Voldemort ruled over his Death Eaters, but she knew what it was like to have him haunt the shadows. No one had seen him in about sixteen years, but no one thought he was dead. Instead he must have found something else to do, something else to concentrate on, and had put off conquering the Wizarding World for a time. Every now and then Death Eaters would attack somewhere and devastate the survivors as if to remind everyone that Lord Voldemort was still out there, but the Dark Lord didn't show himself.

So people hid and prepared for the real war to come. The Ministry had finally grown a backbone and was ready to fight a war of attrition, and they all hoped that Voldemort would conduct his war in the same manner so that they would be prepared. No one wanted to be unprepared when the Dark Lord emerged from his hiding place. They had erected two monuments in the center of Diagon Alley as a reminder of his power.

One tree was planted at the North end of the Alley and on the wall behind it all the names of the people who had died were written with their date of birth and date of death. On the South end there was only a wall with the names of those missing, but with the date of birth and the date they had disappeared. Ginny hated going to the South end because she hated to look at those names, all those hundreds of names, and see herself reflected in the black stone they were carved in to. Bill had told her the architect had modeled it after the Vietnam Memorial in the United States and she could see why it had been a good idea. But she didn't like looking at that wall no matter the reason why it looked the way it did.

One name in particular seemed to haunt her. It was a little boy who had probably died years ago, she'd found his father on the North Wall and his mother was listed below him on the South Wall with the same second date, but his name had always stuck with her. It was probably because he'd died so young, his parents had too. Or maybe it was because of the date he'd gone missing. Harry James Potter had been born on July 31st, 1980 and he'd gone missing on August 11th, 1981. He'd been a year old. She'd been born at the same time he had most likely died.

The first time her parents had taken her to each of the walls and explained what they meant she'd been seven years old and had barely understood what they were talking about. They'd said that the people whose names were written on the South Wall hadn't been seen since that second date and would probably never be seen again. But she hadn't been paying much attention.

Instead she took a few steps forward to trace the name that was at eye level before turning to face her parents again. "That's my birthday, Mummy. What was his name? How old was he?" she had asked and her Mummy had knelt on the ground next to her to read the name and dates, because she wasn't that good at reading or math yet, and had let out a little sob. "Mummy? Why are you crying?" Ginny hadn't meant to make her cry and she hadn't understood why she'd cried.

"Harry James Potter was a year and eleven days old when he went missing. When you were born," Molly told her and hugged Ginny so tightly that it had been hard to breathe. Her Daddy had looked sad too and had stroked her hair like he did every night when he said good night. "He must be your Guardian Angel, watching over you since you were born."

But Ginny hadn't believed her, even though her mummy knew almost everything. But she was wrong about Harry James Potter and Ginny knew it. "No Mummy, he can't be my Guardian Angel because he's not dead. I'm going to meet him one day, and I'm going to marry him."

Molly and Arthur had looked at each other with desperation in their eyes but didn't say anything that would disillusion their little girl. How did you explain uncertain death to a child? So Molly just embraced her and then pulled her away from the Wall and into a shop to begin their errands. Arthur held Ginny's hand as she walked between them, keeping a careful eye on the adventurous girl.

Now Ginny was sixteen years old and understood what it meant to be listed on the South Wall. It was considered to be an even worse fate than the North Wall and Ginny was inclined to agree. She always paused for a moment there and thought of Harry James Potter, wishing him well and imagining what he would look like now. She'd looked for a picture of him and his parents once, but had never been able to find one. So her picture of him in her head was blurry, like a lens out of focus.

Today she was not going to Diagon Alley, but to Kings Cross Station in London, to Platform 9 3/4 and the Hogwarts Express. Her Sixth Year and all she could think of was the fact that Harry James Potter should be starting his Seventh and final year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Shaking her head she crawled out of her bed and dressed in the only clothes that she had not yet packed before stumbling down to the kitchen.

Her Mum and Dad were already there, Arthur reading the Daily Prophet and Molly putting the finishing touches on breakfast. Ginny greeted them with a nod, she'd never been much of a morning person, and spread her toast liberally with jam. She watched without comment as Ron stumbled into the kitchen, still looking half asleep, which, of course, did nothing to dent his enormous appetite.

Breakfast was silent with just the four of them and Ginny sorely missed her five other brothers, who were guaranteed to make any meal into an event. Then Ginny and Ron collected their trunks and Ron helped their father put them in the trunk of their old Ford Anglia while Ginny helped her mum pack lunches for them.

At the station her mum said her customary goodbyes and her father hugged her before releasing her to board the train, on time for once in her life. Ron followed her but quickly left to go find his best friend Neville Longbottom. Ginny continued until she found her own friends in a compartment at the end of the train.

"Ginny Weasley, are you awake?" Demelza demanded half way through the train ride. Ginny had been unusually silent that day and had hardly participated in their discussion about the Holyhead Harpies, something that was almost unheard of.

Ginny smiled at her in response. "Sorry, I didn't get much sleep last night and my mind refuses to concentrate. Plus it feels as if some bloody wanker is playing the drums in my head."

The others laughed and resumed their conversation, satisfied with Ginny's response. Ginny, on the other hand, withdrew even further. The truth was that she had this feeling that something had happened, something that would change everything. Although it was true that her head hurt, but it wasn't like a normal headache.

No, it was as if someone had hit her in the head with a bludger and cracked her skull, as had happened to her last year in the game against Slytherin. Not only that but the rest of her ached as if it too had been battered. She thought she must be coming down with something but she didn't want to worry about it until she had to.

She slipped into an uncomfortable sleep soon after, filled with bright lights and screaming. By the time she woke the train was pulling into the station at Hogsmeade and she had to change into her robes. Ginny followed the throngs of students to the carriages blindly, her head hurt so much that it felt like she was dying.

Phantom voices called out to her, telling her to stay awake and that help was on the way. It was all she could do to make it through the feast and then her dorm before she passed out, fully dressed in her bed.

She woke suddenly in the middle of the night to the sound of someone cursing. The voice was male, which was surprising enough, but it also had an American accent, which was shocking. Gingerly she sat up and received the pleasant surprise that her body and her head no longer hurt. Holding her wand tightly she peered out of the bed curtains to see a tall boy looking around the room in amazement. The relief on his face was evident when he saw her, but she felt sickened when she got a good look at him.

He wore jeans and a jumper, but they were torn and dirty, stained with what looked like blood. His glasses hid dark eyes and his face was beginning to show a collection of nasty bruises and cuts. His hair was dark as well and messy, almost as much of a mess as the rest of him. She pointed her wand at him and he raised his hands to show they were empty.

"I'm not armed, I don't seem to have my wand. And I'm lost and I have no idea how I got here. Where is here, anyway?" he asked and Ginny nearly shivered at the pleasing familiarity of his voice.

"This is the Sixth Year Girls Dorm at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. What's your name?" she returned, trying to keep her voice authoritative but slowly lowering her wand.

"Shit. This is Hogwarts? I'm in Europe. You've got to be freaking kidding me!" he exclaimed and she bit back a giggle, something decidedly not like her, at his reaction.

He continued his exclamations for a few moments before she interrupted him. "You haven't told me your name yet," she said pointedly.

"Oh, it's Harry. Harry Potter." Ginny stared at him in amazement, wondering who had put him up to this sick joke, and how they'd known about her fascination with Harry James Potter. When Ginny didn't answer the imposter his brow wrinkled in confusion. "Are you ok…? I'm sorry, what's your name?"

His question startled her from her thoughts and she answered frostily. "It's Ginny Weasley, as you well know you prat! What's your real name, and don't give me this Harry Potter nonsense, Harry Potter's been missing and presumed dead for sixteen years."

Now it was his turn to be startled if the wide eyed look he gave Ginny was any indication. "What do you mean missing and presumed dead? I can tell you where I've been-in America with my grandparents!" he exclaimed and sat down heavily, although he didn't make any sound while doing it.

"Harry Potter and his parents, Lily and James, were involved in the last attack ever made where You-Know-Who actually appeared. James Potter's body was found, but Harry and Lily Potter were never seen or heard from again," Ginny said, her tone fading from annoyed to concerned as his face became paler and paler. "Are you alright?"

Harry Potter looked her in the eyes, and she noticed for the first time that they were a clear emerald green, and she shivered at the pain she saw in them. Carefully, she climbed out of bed and knelt on the floor in front of him. She tried to place a hand on his right knee but her hand went right through it and they both gasped, eyes remaining locked together the entire time.

"You really are Harry James Potter, aren't you?" she asked and he snorted in response.

"No, I'm the Queen. Of course I am. What intelligent reason would I have to lie?"

"Alright. I believe you, but if you're not dead and you were in America, why are you here now?"

"All I can remember before waking up here is a car hitting mine and then an ambulance. Ginny, I think I'm dead. For real this time."

* * *

A/N: So I shouldn't be starting another story when I have two or three unfinished ones but this one is so much more fun to write. Plus I can't remember where the outlines for those other stories ended up... Oops? I hope all you readers get a kick out of my new story and the next update should come sometime next week. It would be sooner but finals start tomorrow and I've really got to start studying. See you all in chapter two!


	2. Chapter 2

Ginny sat there stunned for a moment, her mind furiously trying to catch up with what was going on. Harry just watched her, his demeanor solemn and deadly serious. Suddenly she was very glad that she was sitting down because she had the feeling she'd have fallen if she'd been standing.

"Pardon, what did you just say? You're dead?" Ginny's voice grew stronger the longer she spoke. "Then what are you, some kind of ghost?" she paused to snort in disbelief, "You don't look like any ghost I've ever seen."

As if in agreement one of her dorm mates rolled over and mumbled in her sleep. Both Ginny and Harry froze, having been suddenly reminded that they were not alone in the room. Moments passed and when nothing happened they both heaved sighs of relief. Ginny stood and grabbed her dressing robe from its place next to her bed before heading to the door.

"Come on, we'll go to the common room, no one will be down there for another couple of hours," she told him, not even pausing to let him catch up.

She was more than a little surprised when the stairs didn't change at Harry's presence. Solid supporting evidence to the 'I think I'm dead' theory of his that she really didn't want to think about. Ginny sat in her favorite armchair and watched as Harry paced before settling into a chair across from her.

"I don't know what to do. I don't know what to say," he told her in a scared little boy's voice and her heart went out to him. "I think I'm dead. I mean, I have all my memories right up to waking up here, in Hogwarts, and the only explanation I can think of is that I'm dead." Then, as almost an afterthought he added, "Or I'm dreaming. Either's possible."

Ginny swallowed and answered his unsettling statement. "All right, let's just stop for a moment and then start at the beginning. I can't do anything with only what little I know. So start from the beginning," she said and he nodded reluctantly.

He stood again and began pacing; something that Ginny got the feeling he did regularly. "I'm not really sure where the beginning is. Should I tell you about my life, how I ended up in the middle of the U.S.? Or should I just tell you why I think I'm dead?"

"The beginning is the beginning. I don't know anything about you, start with your early life and work your way to now. I can't give you an opinion on your state of livelihood without any background knowledge."

"Ok, the beginning it is," he nodded and looked less apprehensive now that he'd decided on a course of action. He sat down once more and began his tale.

"I was born on July 31st of 1980 to Lily and James Potter. My godfather's name is Sirius Black, I don't have a godmother. Apparently my early life with my parents was pretty happy, but then something went wrong.

"For some reason Voldemort started to target my family. My maternal grandparents were killed and my paternal grandparents were going into hiding as well as my parents and myself. That day, the day you said I disappeared, was probably the worst day of my life and I can only really remember this green light and high pitched, cruel laughter."

Harry stopped talking for a long time and Ginny was afraid he wouldn't continue, that this was too private, too painful for him to tell to a near stranger. She opened her mouth to say something, say anything, when he continued.

"It was an accident that my parents and I were there that day. We were supposed to go into hiding ourselves that day, but my parents decided to spend one last day with my grandparents. Voldemort attacked their home while we were there and my father was killed."

Another pause followed this statement, this one not quite as long as the last. "He took a Killing Curse meant for me while my mother and grandparents were battling Voldemort's most loyal Death Eaters," he said in a sad, quiet voice that more than anything made Ginny want to hug him and protect him from the world even though he was older than she and had already seen evil.

"After that he turned his wand on me, but then everything went wrong. My Grandma told me that Voldemort's spell backfired when he tried to kill me and that he himself was destroyed, but that can't be true. After all, he's been sighted a few times since then."

Ginny didn't, couldn't, believe that his story was true. She'd heard all about the war, two of her uncles had even died during it, but never before had she heard of someone her age that was so affected by the war. Whose entire life had been affected by the war, and even just the ending of the war. She didn't want to hear any more, but didn't know how to tell Harry that his life was so awful that it hurt to hear about it. Didn't know how to tell someone that she'd been so sheltered her entire life that she couldn't even conceive of what his first years of life meant.

So she sat there and listened as Harry told his story, a story that was already edited for he couldn't bring himself to tell a near stranger everything that had ever happened to him no matter whom she was or the circumstances in which he had met her.

"My mother and grandparents fled to the United States, Illinois to be exact, without telling anyone where they were going. That's why we've had no contact with anyone in Britain, and probably why my mother and I were declared missing. We left that very night and only my grandparents have been back, and even then only very briefly."

Harry ran a hand through his hair, further messing up his already messy hair. Ginny wanted to smooth that hair back into place but was too frightened to do so, frightened of what she wasn't sure. So she locked her hands together in her lap and let him continue quietly telling his story, uninterrupted.

"My mother never got over my father's death and became ill when I was still young. She died when I was eight and my grandparents have raised me ever since. That's my life story; at least it was up until I think yesterday."

Ginny gathered the courage to respond to this last statement. "What happened yesterday? What happened to make you appear here thinking that you're dead?"

"Do you know what a car is?" he asked.

"Yes, my family's got an old Ford Anglia."

"I was driving my car to work at about 5 in the morning when some idiot ran a red light. I remember a flash of headlights before he slammed into me and my car rolled. It was an out of the way street, no one would be going that way for a few hours at least. I wondered what had happened to the other driver. That's what I thought before I passed out.

"I woke up to find some people pulling me out of the wreckage of my car. I could feel the pain then, I couldn't when I was first hit. My head felt like it was on fire and the rest of my body was covered in scrapes and bruises. The people who had pulled me out told me to stay awake, that help was on the way. I think I passed out again pretty soon after that because I remember the ambulance arriving and then the next thing I knew I woke up in your dorm."

Ginny wanted to scream in fear at what he was saying. Her father had told all of his children horror stories about car accidents and the disfiguration and awful deaths that occurred because of them. But that wasn't what had frightened her. It was his story, and the fact that she'd felt what was happening to him.

She remembered the voices, people telling her to hold on, that she needed to stay awake. At the time she'd thought it was her imagination, now she knew what she'd really been hearing. Bile rose up in her throat as she remembered the intense pain and she shuddered at the thought that she'd only been experiencing it secondhand, Harry had lived through it. Most likely died, too.

"Alright," she said in an exhale, trying to calm her racing heart down. "I believe you, I believe what you just told me actually happened, but that doesn't explain why you're here. Or why you're in color, every other ghost I've ever met has been in shades of gray."

Harry stood and began pacing, and that sick feeling came rushing back to Ginny. For on the back of his head his hair was matted with blood and there a large wound underneath that shield of blood-encrusted hair. It was in exactly the same spot as her headache had been emanating from. She pressed a trembling hand to her mouth, trying to hold in her horror and confusion at the situation.

"Maybe I'm only half dead. Maybe my body is still alive, only brain dead, and that's why I'm like this," he said in a rush, seemingly as desperate as her to find some reason, some explanation for all of this madness.

Ginny lowered her hand and nodded her assent. "That might be it, but we're going to have to find out for-" She stopped speaking as someone came down the girls' stairs.

Harry turned to look at what had made her stop so abruptly and they watched as Hermione Granger came down, fully dressed and with her book bag slung over her shoulder. Ginny didn't know what to say as she stared at the Head Girl.

Hermione was one of those people that everyone thought had been sorted into the wrong house, in Hermione's case everyone thought she belonged in Ravenclaw. But at that moment Ginny saw why she belonged in Gryffindor, a place where she had no friends and almost no one was friendly to her. She must get up every day at this hour, so that she won't have to deal with her dorm mates, Ginny thought.

"Oh!" Hermione let out a small gasp of surprise when she noticed the other occupants of the room. Ginny's and Harry's eyes met, as they both realized the implications of Harry being seen here. "Ginny, what are you doing down here by yourself so early in the morning? Weren't you not feeling well last night?"

"I, um, I c-couldn't sleep," Ginny stammered out, exchanging another look with Harry when Hermione said she was alone. Couldn't she see the strange boy covered in blood who was standing in plain view of her? "Why are you up so early?"

Hermione blushed just a little as she responded, "I always get up at this time. I've always been an early riser. Are you feeling better?"

Ginny bit her lip and tried to think of a response. To be completely honest her situation now was worse than her pain from the night before. Last night she'd only been suffering from a headache, now she had the ghost of a boy who'd, contrary to popular belief, died at the same time that she'd been suffering from mysterious pain. Now her stomach churned with nerves, trying to think of an explanation of what was going on when Hermione finally noticed Harry.

"I think I'll be fine. I probably just ate something Fred or George slipped to me without realizing it," she said, congratulating herself for an easily believable lie. Hermione gave a little half smile that made her look actually human.

"I can understand that," Hermione bit her lip before continuing, "Do you want to go down to breakfast with me? Since you're already up?"

Ginny glanced over at Harry, who nodded encouragingly. "Sure, I was getting hungry anyway. Let me just go get dressed real quick and we can go down."

Any hesitation she might have felt over accepting Hermione's invitation evaporated at the bright grin that had taken over the older girl's face. Ginny instantly regretted never seeking out the girl before; she must be incredibly lonely in this huge castle without any friends or family. Ginny couldn't imagine it, she'd never been without somebody in her entire life. The closest had been in Ron's first year, but even then her parents had been there and Luna had been within walking distance.

Ginny rushed up the stairs, but stopped abruptly when a shout of surprise cut through the silence. She turned to see Harry at the bottom of the stairs, looking ruffled. She raised an eyebrow at him, grateful that Hermione had moved away so that she was out of sight.

"When you left, I was going to wait for you down here. Then, when you were about 20 feet from me I felt this pull and I was dragged along behind you," he said in a rush, eyes wide. "Maybe that's why I showed up here, with you. I'm tied to you somehow!"

Ginny's brow wrinkled as she thought about this new development and then she motioned for him to come closer. He seemed to climb the stairs without even touching them. "Maybe I can talk to Hermione about this during breakfast; she's the smartest girl in school."

Harry nodded reluctantly. "It's a good idea to talk to her, but maybe not right away. She looks like she could use a friend; don't make her think you're only talking to her to pick her brain. She'll be hurt, and it'd be cruel."

Ginny nodded, a little surprised at the depth that Harry showed. She'd known Hermione for six years and only this morning had it occurred to her how lonely Hermione must be. Harry had realized this after knowing her for maybe five minutes. She thought of her brother Ron and smiled, Ron would never have noticed how Hermione felt- he had the emotional range of a teaspoon.

Harry stood outside of her dorm while she dressed, at the very edge of his range. It would have been easier if he'd gone in the room with her, but they would have died of embarrassment. In the end Ginny had never gotten dressed faster than she did that morning. She stepped out of the room in her school uniform and gave Harry a smile before hurrying down the steps to find Hermione waiting at the portrait hole.

"Let's be off. I'm starving!" Ginny told her and they both giggled as they climbed out to the hall. Conversation didn't really pick up at first, Hermione had never been a great conversationalist and Ginny's mind was more focused on Harry than the growing awkwardness. Finally it was Harry who had to solve the problem.

"Ask her what she did over the summer. School just started here, didn't it?" He prodded Ginny, who shot him a grateful smile.

"Did you go anywhere this summer?"

"Oh, I went to Australia with my family. It was fascinating! My parents are muggles so the trip was planned without magic, but I'm of age so I did some exploring on my own." Hermione blushed and Ginny couldn't pass up the chance to tease her.

"That exploring didn't involve boys did it?" Hermione's blush increased and Ginny squealed in delight. "Tell me what happened! Tell me!" she demanded.

Hermione giggled and shook her head. "It was just a summer fling, I don't even write him."

Ginny pouted. "At least tell me he was hot!"

Next to her Harry groaned and shook his head. "Don't tell me that innocent question will set girls off! I do not want to listen to gossip!" Ginny shot him a quick glare but quickly turned back to Hermione so that she wouldn't notice.

Conversation didn't stop all through breakfast, although the topic was in constant flux. Harry was regretting his decision to be sensitive and not question Hermione about what had happened to him. All he wanted to do was go home, preferably alive, and instead he was forced to sit in the middle of Europe listening to two teenage girls gossip. It was even worse that only one of them knew he was there.

Growing bored he decided to see if he could touch anything, the bacon looked very tasty and he was hungry for some reason. He'd thought that after death he wouldn't be hungry again, it was almost a relief to realize that he was capable of it. Maybe he wasn't dead after all, just having a weird out of body experience.

Slowly, tentatively he reached out to brush his hand against a piece of bacon. He could feel it, but his hand went right through it. His brow wrinkled and he tried again. Slowly, oh so slowly, he moved until the tips of his fingers were touching it but not sinking through it. Then, with single minded determination, he pushed it. His fingers slid through it, but it moved just a fraction. He tried again, and again, and again, until he was exhausted.

Somehow, although he had barely made any progress, the effort he's exerted to move even that small piece of bacon an inch has sucked out all of his energy. There was sweat beading his forehead and he swiped at it with his sleeve, grimacing when he noticed dried blood had mixed with the sweat and was staining his shirt.

"Hermione, do you know of any way to get muggle news from America?" Ginny's voice cut through his thoughts and he looked up to see her looking at him, a strange expression on her face. Hermione looked startled at her question.

"What do you need it for?" she asked. "I didn't think you were in Muggle Studies. Isn't your dad obsessed with muggles?"

Ginny blushed and finally looked away from Harry, turning to face Hermione once more. "I made a friend over the summer who's a muggle and she was telling me all sorts of stories that are in muggle newspapers in America so I wanted to know if I could get a subscription to one of them."

Hermione bit her lip, struggling to find an answer. "As far as I know there's no way unless you had access to a computer, and muggle electronics don't work at Hogwarts."

"Don't worry about it," Ginny said, waving her hand, "It wasn't that important anyway." Her eyes found Harry's again and he gave her a sad smile and a nod, knowing why she had asked.

Other students had begun to fill the Great Hall and Hermione began to gather her things. "I'm sorry to rush off, but I'm supposed to meet Professor Dumbledore before the first classes begin. Head Girl details, he said."

"No problem, I'll see you later. We'll talk at lunch," Ginny smiled and Hermione beamed back at her when Ginny said that they'd eat lunch together too.

"See you then!"

"That was nice of you, I doubt that girl's ever had a friend, let alone being invited to eat with someone else twice in one day," Harry said fiddling with the hem of his shirt.

Ginny rolled her eyes at him. "Aren't you Mr. Sensitive?

I thought that blokes were oblivious to emotions."

Harry gave her a look and she grinned up at him. He rolled his eyes in return and smiled a little. "Let's just go to your classes, where I hopefully won't be bored out of my mind.

Ginny nodded to herself and stood, throwing her bag over her shoulder. She greeted a few people as she moved towards the doors of the Great Hall, but didn't pause to chat. Once outside she continued out of the Entrance Hall out onto the lawn. Here she paused momentarily, because Harry was looking around in wonder at the grounds. Slowly he turned around to look up at the castle, his first sight of the magnificent castle where his parents had met and studied. The place that had been the setting for so many old stories, so many childhood dreams.

"It's beautfiul, isn't it?" Ginny asked, speaking softly as if not to disturb his thoughts.

He nodded and looked down at her once again. "When I was little I used to dream of coming here, I gave up hope when I was 13 that I would ever see it. I'm glad I got to."

Ginny smiled and the two of them continued onto the grounds, Ginny leading the way towards the greenhouses. They move slowly, to savor the early morning peace and the quiet of the school before all the students are awake and crowding the halls and grounds alike.

No one was at the greenhouse when they arrived and Ginny sat beneath the tree, facing the school, and motioned for Harry to join her. He did so reluctantly, as if he was afraid that he'd go through the ground somehow. They sat in silence for a few moments before she spoke.

"I think that, before we do anything else, we need to find out what exactly happened after the accident and where your body is."

"And how do you suggest we do that? It's not like we have a computer here and can just look it up on the internet! This is all such a mess," he groaned and buried his face in his hands.

She had to sit on her hands to keep from reaching out to him, knowing it wouldn't help him at all for her to try comforting him only to have her hand go through him. "I'll write a letter to your grandparents, explaining that you're here with me and that we need to know what's going on," she suggested, her voice tinged with hopelessness. She didn't think they'd respond, she knew that if some kid in another country wrote a letter like that to her she'd be furious and would burn it rather than respond. "Maybe they'll even know why you showed up here."

Harry snorted and lifted his head from his hands. She froze for a moment, stunned by the intensity in his green eyes as they fixed on her. "If I'm really, truly dead I don't want to give them false hope that maybe I could come back. No, that has to be a last resort."

"Then what do we do now? Do you have any ideas?"

He closed his eyes, looking so much like a little lost boy that her heart clenched painfully. She didn't know what to say or what to do to make this better and it was killing her. Not just the fact that Harry was hurting, but the connection they shared scared her. She hadn't told him yet what she had felt yesterday as he died, but she didn't know if she could share this, if he would welcome this information or be even more horrified by recent events. The boy sitting next to her was a stranger, no matter that she'd longed to see him for as long as she could remember, they were still two completely different people thrown into an awful situation with no resolution, or explanation, in sight.

* * *

A/N: Um, please don't kill me? I know I promised this chapter months ago, but my life, and my computer, went to hell. First I had a bunch of real life problems and then, when I was finally able to write again, my computer crashed and I lost everything, including my outline for this story. I just managed to get everything back this week when I discovered an old memory stick and decided to check what was on it and lo and behold I'd saved the outline somewhere else! So yay, I can still write this story! I give you no promises on when the next chapter will be out, only that it won't take as long as this one.


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